Will the museum deserve an Oscar

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Film lovers won’t be able to visit in-person until the doors open to the public on  September 30, 2021, but new the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures  programming will soon be available online. The pre-opening program includes a screening of Y tu mamá también to a celebrate the partnership between cinematographer Emmanuel  Lubezki and writer-director Alfonso Cuarón, as well as a screening of the groundbreaking coming-out story Pariah, with a discussion that includes writer/director Dee Rees. Other virtual conversations will feature Spike Lee, Oscar-winning musician and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, and one on the intersection between filmmaking and social change.

Not just a temple for cinema culture, the museum intends to directly address controversies like #MeToo and #OscarsSoWhite. While film fans await the forthcoming Los Angeles institution—with a campus designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, that includes a restoration of the historic Saban Building along with a spherical 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater addition—the online experiences (which start April 22nd with an all-women panel titled Breaking the Oscars Ceiling) will lay further foundation of expectation. See more at the Academy Museum website.

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Rocky Mountain Highs

Posted on March 17, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

One of my favorite aspects of travel in mountainous regions such as the Colorado Rocky Mountains is the opportunity to see the glories of the night sky without light and air pollution. Naturally, I love the astonishing timelapse below created by filmmakers Gavin Heffernan and Harun Mehmedinović of Sun Chaser Pictures . The gorgeous timelapse was made of the brilliant night skies over Wet Mountain Valley in the south-central part of Colorado. The altitude of this area is just under 1½ miles. The location is part of the Dark Sky Project.

Imagine if you could see the Milky Way from your front porch? If you live in the Wet Mountain Valley of Colorado, you can. The valley is home to Westcliffe and Silver Cliff International Dark-Sky Association Dark Sky Communities, where night sky quality is shielded from excessive light pollution through various measures taken by the citizens and the local authorities. While Wet Mountain Valley is known for the spectacular snowy mountains many visit during the day, the views are even more stunning at night.

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The Libraries Are Appreciated

Posted on March 16, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

The Libraries Are Appreciated, Jacob Lawrence
From the Harlem series, No. 28
The Harlem Branch Library of the New York Public Library at 9 West 124th Street

 

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in America when the sun goes down

Posted on March 15, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Last Friday would have been Jack Kerouac’s 99th birthday. One of the online commemorations linked to this extraordinary clip from a 1959 television appearance on the Steve Allen Show. Kerouac reads from On the Road while Allen plays some bluesy jazz lines beneath him. The appearance was to promote an album that Kerouac and Allen had just released, called Poetry for the Beat Generation. It also seems to be one of the few film clips of the Beat icon reading his own work.

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Ex-Libris

Posted on March 14, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

As a book seller and collector, I have always been ambivalent when it comes to bookplates. The artistry and clever design cannot be denied, however the glued in place bookplates permanently damage and deface the book.

 

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How Bookstores Will Re-Open

Posted on March 13, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

 

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NYC’s Tiniest Tourist Attraction

Posted on March 12, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

At the corner of Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue South in the West Village, in front of the iconic Village Cigars store, lies this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mosaic embedded in the sidewalk. The  triangle’s enigmatic message: “Property of the Hess Estate Which Has Never Been Dedicated For Public Purposes.”

In the early days of the 20th century when New York City was expanding the IRT subway line, city officials tore down a nearby apartment building owned by a Philadelphian named David Hess. A tiny triangle of land was missed during the municipal  the survey . The city asked the family to donate the diminutive property to the public, but family refused.

As things often go in NYC, the Hess family battled the city in court and actually won the right to preserve their little plot, and embedded the tile plaque in 1922 as kind of a victory symbol. In 1938, they sold the plot to the Village Cigar owners for $100.

 

 

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Worldwide Live

Posted on March 11, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

When I have felt especially claustrophobic during the Pandemic lockdown, I have checked out some of the amazing live camera feeds from around the globe. Recently, I found the wonderful Rolling Cam World on Youtube and I think that I’m addicted. Look at your own peril.

LIVE CAM LIST Basilica di San Francesco (Assisi – Italy) only from 8 to 16 – http://umbria.webcam/basilicasanfranc…​ Piazza del Comune (Assisi – Italy) only from 8 to 16 – https://umbria.webcam/assisi​ Maui Sands (Haway – Usa) only from 18 to 9 https://www.mauisands.com/mauisands/m…​ Ponte delle Guglie (Venice – Italy) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpZAe…​ Rialto Bridge (Venice – Italy) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_Vg9…​ Dam Place (Amsterdam – Holland) – https://webcam.nl/​ Sixhaven (Amsterdam – Holland) – https://webcam.nl/​ Pedestrian center (Elburg – Holland) only from 6 to 23.00 – https://webcam.nl/​ Damrak & Beursplein (Amsterdam – Holland) – https://webcam.nl/​ Haven van Zandvoort (Zandvoort – Holland) – https://webcam.nl/​ Odessa Online (Odessa – Ukraina) only from 8 to 18.00 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFBsL…​ Odessa Online (Odessa – Ukraina) only from 8 to 18.00 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuQwc…​ Santa Claus Village (Rovaniemi – Finland) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp4RR…​ Zero Point Levi (Levi- Finland) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwihx…​ Levi Activity Park (Levi- Finland) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34gHi…​ Ice-skating Portsmouth (New Hampshire – Usa) only from 15 to 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iisTO…​ Market Square, Portsmouth (New Hampshire – Usa) only from 14 to 22 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=METQv…​ Westfield, (Massachusetts – Usa) only from 14 to 22 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovn3l…​ Boston and Maine Live (Massachusetts – USA) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3TN8…​ Thong Sala Center (Koh Phangan – Thailand) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nnt_…​ Beach Live Stream (Koh Phangan – Thailand) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WbCh…​ Crystal Bay Yacht Club Lamai- (Koh Samui – Thailand) only from 1am to 13 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vZOO…​ Lamai Walking Street – (Koh Samui, Thailand) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4JcF…​ Bondi Lamai (Koh Samui – Thailand) only from 1am to 13 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nnTe…​ Chaweng (Koh Samui – Thailand) only from 1am to 13 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ns1s…​ Absolut Ice Bar From Chaweng (Koh Samui – Thailand) only from 1am to 13 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9BeS…​ Hush Bar Cam, Soi Green Mango, Chaweng – (Koh Samui, Thailand) only from 1am to 13 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqvSt…​ Sweet Soul Cafe Cam 1 – (Koh Samui, Thailand) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qSVA…​ Playa del Inglés – Yumbo Center (Gran Canaria – Spain) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvYNX…​ Playa del Inglés – Irish center (Gran Canaria – Spain) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXqKk…​ Pozo Izquierdo Beach (Gran Canaria – Spain) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmg4F…​ Town Square – Jackson Hole (Wyoming – USA) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EiC9…​ Grand Targhee Dreamcatcher – Jackson Hole (Wyoming – Usa) – only from 18 to 2am – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7fWa…​ Lava Mountian Lodge @ Togwotee Pass (Wyoming – Usa) – only from 18 to 2am – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyvzX…​ Live webcam at Bridge Street Grill, Lower Stanley (Idaho – Usa) – only from 18 to 2am – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIXYZ…​ Tokyo Live Camera (Tokyo – Japan) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOjmv…​ Las Vegas (Nevada – Usa) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_z66…

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world without end

Posted on March 10, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Map
Linda Hogan
This is the world
so vast and lonely
without end, with mountains
named for men
who brought hunger
from other lands,
and fear
of the thick, dark forest of trees
that held each other up,
knowing fire dreamed of swallowing them
and spoke an older tongue,
and the tongue of the nation of wolves
was the wind around them.
Even ice was not silent.
It cried its broken self
back to warmth.
But they called it
ice, wolf, forest of sticks,
as if words would make it something
they could hold in gloved hands,
open, plot a way
and follow.This is the map of the forsaken world.
This is the world without end
where forests have been cut away from their trees.
These are the lines wolf could not pass over.
This is what I know from science:
that a grain of dust dwells at the center
of every flake of snow,
that ice can have its way with land,
that wolves live inside a circle
of their own beginning.
This is what I know from blood:
the first language is not our own.There are names each thing has for itself,
and beneath us the other order already moves.
It is burning.
It is dreaming.
It is waking up.

From DARK. SWEET.: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2014) © 2014 by Linda Hogan.

Linda Hogan is a Chickasaw poet, novelist, essayist, and environmentalist,
Hogan is the author of the poetry collections Calling Myself Home (1978); Daughters, I Love You (1981); Eclipse (1983); Seeing Through the Sun (1985), which won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation; Savings (1988), The Book of Medicines, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist (1993); Rounding the Human Corners (2008); Indios (2012); and Dark. Sweet. New and Selected Poems (2014).

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All Aboard

Posted on March 9, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I love a good story about a creative way to bring books to people. Thanks to the town of Norrtälje  all residents in Stockholm’s far-flung archipelago of islands have access to free reading materials by way of the Bokboten library.

The aquatic library specializes in children’s literature, but also offers a variety of books for adults on long term loan. Island residents can even order specific titles online and pick them up when the book boat docks.

The book boat has its own Facebook page

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